Bridge Road Harvest

2011 Harvest Pale Ale - 4.6% ABV

I'm a big fan of Bridge Rd, their Beechworth Pale Ale is one of the most dangerously sessionable beers I've ever encountered, while the Bling IPA is a bruiser of a hop heavyweight, a curry just doesn't taste the same without being accompanied by one. So I expected great things when I ordered the 2011 Harvest. It did not disappoint...

Firstly, it has a lovely golden body, topped by a big creamy head, on looks alone this is a supermodel of a pale ale. The big aroma is all citrus hops, seriously it's like a well stocked fruit bowl; grapefruit, peach, apricot and passionfruit. A similar theme carries across onto the taste, citrus and stone fruit with a solid, rising bitterness which leaves a dry and clean mineral aftertaste.

This pale ale has a very fresh quality to it, fitting considering it is a harvest beer, made of fresh hops of an, as yet, unnamed experimental strain. Hopefully the brewers continue to experiment with it because the robust, fresh flavors of this beer leaves me wanting more.

Such is beer indeed...

8 Wired Hop Wired

India Pale Ale - 7.3% ABV

Hopheads of the craft beer world, take note. 

This beer is the hopheads dream. The dream, I tell you!

Okay, I know. The Brew Views has been pretty 8 Wired heavy lately, but can you really blame me? Blame 8 Wired if anyone! Stop making such lovely, hoppy beers! And blame Slowbeer for making them so accessible and affordable!

Forget it. 

The Hop Wired smells hoppy. Really hoppy. It’s not dissimilar to smelling bittering hop pellets like Chinooks before it even goes in to making a beer. Such a wonderful aroma!

The taste of the beer starts with big citrusy hop flavours that make you smile and appreciate why bittering hops are used in beer in the first place. Don’t discount the malt though, it definitely plays the supporting cast role, but in such an unassuming way that you might not even consider it for an Oscar nomination. It’s surprisingly balanced for such a strong, hoppy IPA.

This is one beer I will happily return to time and time again, as it’s just what an unashamed hophead such as myself is looking for. 

8 Wired have done it again. 

Epic/Thornbridge Stout

After sitting down with Master Dave and Master Rorz at Beer Deluxe on Showcase Wednesday, knocking back Thornbridge Brewery's latest international collaboration and being generally smitten by the black beauty contained before us, it was only a matter of time before I used all my Bear Grylls-style cunning and poise to hunt down their previous effort with New Zealand's Epic Brewery. Thankfully, before any of my own urine was consumed, I'd found exactly what I had been trying to track down, albeit at the first place I looked. (Slow Beer, if you must ask)

Spending $16 on a single bottle of beer does two things to me, it angers the tight-wallet student in me, the weedy geek who used to be able to justify drinking Hahn Ice because it was on special at $20 a cube (30 awful, awful cans). It also installs a need of occasion. To sit drink a beer of this cost by one's self, there needs to be an atmosphere, perhaps sitting on a leather couch in an evening robe, watching a roaring fire, some Bob Dylan on scratchy vinyl, singing about a man named Hurricane, perhaps even some star-gazing... Something to live up to the quality of the beer.

On this occasion, I chose the "lay on the unmade bed in my work clothes watching cat video's on youtube" option, mainly because I was too lazy to light a fire and wind up the gramophone. The beer though, as would have been expected, deserved much better. I love a beer that pours like velvet, filling the glass like melted chocolate from a fondue fountain. The aroma on the pour was quite a bitter burnt smell, but once it had settled, rich coffee and caramel remained as a teaser to the flavour. The first few sips were like that initial smell, almost a burnt toast taste (albeit, burnt toast made from the finest quality home-cooked bread) but as the beer warmed a little, I was met with a rich complexity of malty flavours, and a very subtle oak after-taste, like a good wine. Each successive sip opened up new doors of flavour until about halfway down the glass, then it seemed to just settle on bitter chocolate and coffee. It is definitely a beer for a better occasion than the one I had given it. Is it better than the Thorny Goat? tough to say, it certainly doesn't have the novelty, genius and flair of the Goat, but it feels like a much more solid and consistent competitor. Like a Luke Hodge to Thorny Goat's Buddy Franklin.

8 Wired Tall Poppy

India Red Ale - 7.0% ABV

So how come I’ve only properly discovered the great beers being produced in New Zealand in the last three or four months? It couldn’t possibly be my fault so I’m going to blame you, the collective unknown group of people that stumbled across this post by mistake. 

The Tall Poppy ale is just the next one in line from 8 Wired that has completely impressed me. Floored me actually, not literally as it was only early, but I was completely smitten by a beautiful, malty, hoppy strong ale which is everything I could hope for as an unashamed hop head. 

This shouldn’t really surprise me as the head brewer at 8 wired (Søren Eriksen) is also the head brewer at Renaissance, who seduced me prior to this with their wonderful selection of ales. 

On to the beer itself!

Just a beautiful red ale colour that is a little darker than I expected it might be. A really hoppy aroma greets you upon the first whiff with a little bit of citrus and this really does increase the enjoyment of this ale. 

This has all the desirable characteristics of a really good IPA but also has that depth in body the the red ale component provides. The initial taste is pure hop glory, but the balanced malt body makes this a highly drinkable beer. A quote from the label states: “Please don’t binge this beer. We have put in too much work for it to be wasted.” This is lovely, but I do feel that it is highly sessionable despite it’s high alcohol content and high hop bitterness. This might just be me though. 

Another note, this was like $12 for the bottle so I’d be mildly impressed for someone to binge on the 8 Wired selection. This isn’t the point though I’m sure. 

Too many digressions. 

If you haven’t tried any of the 8 Wired beers then stop what you are doing now and go and see my good friends at Slowbeer. They will make sure you get the appropriate choices. 

2 Brothers Grizz

Amber ale - 5.7% ABV

The Grizz is the new seasonal offering from the 2 Brothers lads and if they’re previous seasonals are anything to go by then there are some mighty bold shoes that are to be filled. 

This amber ale is a step back to normality. 

2 Brothers have got the ability to produce some really subtle and balanced flavours in their beers and this new seasonal is a shining example of that. 

In the past few seasonals such as the Voodoo, the James Brown and the Guvnor the subtlety was overshadowed by the sheer boldness that each of those beers presented. 

The Grizz returns to the delicate structure that makes the Growler such an enjoyable and sessionable beer. 

I had this beer on tap down at the 2 Brothers Beer Hall in Moorabbin and have since picked up a couple of bottles from Slowbeer and I find that this actually picks up some characteristics that it lacked on tap. I’ll be heading back down to the brewery to try it again and see if has settled down a bit. 

The Grizz starts off with a lovely, sweet malty mouthfeel and instantly shows some flashes of spice and toffee sweetness, but without being too much to process. 

This is a very solid amber ale that I would be happy to session, especially in the colder months. 

I would really like to see this beer become a regular beer in the repertoire of the 2 Brothers, but I really don’t have any influence in any industry let alone the craft beer industry. 

It’s just an idea.